Another senseless outrage, followed by same old talk

The images are shocking and distressingly familiar. Distraught children, couples consoling each other, heavily armed police. They could have come from any of the senseless outrages that have become part of our language: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora.

Now we have another name, Newtown, Connecticut. But this time it's a little bit different. This time it's not high school students, university students or people escaping into cinema fantasy for a night. This time it's a primary school and 20 of the 28 people killed by the youthful gunman are aged between five and 10 years old.

Senseless ... people gather for a prayer vigil at St Rose Church following a primary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Photo: AFP

So a familiar course unfolds again. Barack Obama extends his sympathies and says what seems obvious to many elsewhere in the world but seems hard for many Americans to get their heads around: ''We're going to have to come together to meaningful action on this, regardless of the politics.'' New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, went further: ''Calling for 'meaningful action' is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership - not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today.''

That seems reasonable, but it's impossible to overstate how deep resistance to changing US gun laws runs. After Obama and Bloomberg spoke, the ''other side'' joined in. Tighter laws would not help. ''That's one thing I hope doesn't happen,'' said Mike Rogers, a senior Michigan Republican and former FBI agent.

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Americans are passionate about their ''right to keep and bear arms'' as enshrined in the second amendment to the US constitution.

The numbers are staggering. There are about 300 million firearms in the country. That's about one gun for every man, woman and child.

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Other statistics will be rolled out, one in three Americans knows someone who has been shot and in an average year, roughly 100,000 Americans are killed or wounded by guns. Imagine a full SCG, then double it, then add another 20,000 people. That's what that looks like.

For Australians, it's hard to imagine there would be much resistance to a government's efforts to bring things under control. Indeed, there were massive changes after the 1996 massacre at Port Arthur. Then prime minister John Howard's initiatives did not sail through and there were serious heated debates around the nation, but the end result was declarative, with tighter laws and more than half a million weapons handed in and destroyed under an unprecedented amnesty and buyback.

The question for America now is whether the tragedy at Newtown is different enough to finally result in real change to a gun culture that a large part of the rest of the world, and many Americans, for that matter, sees as out of control.

Perhaps Australia's experience on this issue could be valuable for the US. Barack Obama could do worse than phone John Howard and seek out some advice.